30x WA w/ Nikon Fielscope 60mm ED or 38X WA Pentax 65 ED (1 Viewer)

Hi BF

Does anyone wants to shed some light on this: trying to decide which small all around scope to carry with me most of the time. I'm done for a while with monster 80's and zooms. I am always at around 30 x anyways.

My two considerations are Nikon 30x WA w/ Nikon Fielscope 60mm ED or Pentax 28X XW Pentax 65 ED. Pentax reviews says- great eyepieces and Nikon has great reviews on their 60 mm scope?

With Pentax I 'll save myself $250 dollars. But I am a big Nikon fan because of SE and the LX. Please let the reviews and thoughts pour in.

PS- No Leica or Swaro or Zeiss for me too much $$$.

Thanks,
Carlos

The Pentax has only been available for a few weeks. There's probably not alot of useful experience with it yet.

I thought Pentax 65 ED has been out for months. But still, I encourage any one with experince with either of these scopes to comment.

Zolarcon said:

Hi BF

Does anyone wants to shed some light on this: trying to decide which small all around scope to carry with me most of the time. I'm done for a while with monster 80's and zooms. I am always at around 30 x anyways.

My two considerations are Nikon 30x WA w/ Nikon Fielscope 60mm ED or Pentax 28X XW Pentax 65 ED. Pentax reviews says- great eyepieces and Nikon has great reviews on their 60 mm scope?

With Pentax I 'll save myself $250 dollars. But I am a big Nikon fan because of SE and the LX. Please let the reviews and thoughts pour in.

PS- No Leica or Swaro or Zeiss for me too much $$$.

Thanks,
Carlos

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HAS ANYONE HAD ANY EXPERIENCE WITH EITHER OF THESE 2 SCOPES?

Zolarcon said:

HAS ANYONE HAD ANY EXPERIENCE WITH EITHER OF THESE 2 SCOPES?

Click to expand...

I have the Pentax 65 and am happy with it. There are several threads on the Pentax forum about this scope (though some may have been lost in the recent crash of the website). I use the XF12 eyepiece (32.5X mag) which is half the price of the XW.

The last time I looked through a Nikon was last spring so it's impossible for me to directly compare them. I loved the Nikon but I wasn't in the slightest bit disappointed with the Pentax-I don't think there is much difference quality-wise. The one thing I do remember though is the eyepiece on the Pentax is much nicer to use than the one on the Nikon (which was the 20-45 zoom I think so this doesn't really answer your question re the 30xWA eyepiece-sorry!). The main thing was the superior eye-relief. Dunno if you need this though.

Cost was the main reason I bought this scope compared to the Nikon (or Kowa which I also considered). In Japan the price difference was about the same as in the US-I can get a new tripod with the difference.

there are some reviews of the Nikon Fieldscope in the Equipment Reviews section on here and it is well liked by many members - Scampo for one.

If you check out http://www.alula.fi/GB/index.htm
and go to the optics bit click on the article do small scopes deliver.

My son has the Nikon 82 with 30x and zoom; it is a super piece of kit. I have had quite a bit of experience with the EDIII with 30x (not zoom) and am certain you would find it fits your needs in every way. The Nikon eyepiece is quite outstandingly bright and sharp with a genuine sense of a "walk-in" image that makes you quickly forghet you're even looking through a scope. The colour of the image is as naturtal as it's possible to achieve, I feel sure.

It would be my choice if the Zeiss 85 + zoom was out of range, pricewise.

Zolarcon said:

Hi BF

Does anyone wants to shed some light on this: trying to decide which small all around scope to carry with me most of the time. I'm done for a while with monster 80's and zooms. I am always at around 30 x anyways.

My two considerations are Nikon 30x WA w/ Nikon Fielscope 60mm ED or Pentax 28X XW Pentax 65 ED. Pentax reviews says- great eyepieces and Nikon has great reviews on their 60 mm scope?

With Pentax I 'll save myself $250 dollars. But I am a big Nikon fan because of SE and the LX. Please let the reviews and thoughts pour in.

PS- No Leica or Swaro or Zeiss for me too much $$$.

Thanks,
Carlos

Click to expand...

Yes, I own the Nikon 60 EDIII. It's a very small scope and therefore can be taken along anywhere. And the wide-angle 30x lens is superb, as others have stated before. No comparison to the (old) zoom mentioned above. The new zoom (MC II) is fine too, by the way, but with a very narrow FOV.

Consider how long you intend to use the scope, then the price difference (as long as you can afford it) should not be a main point. I don't know the Pentax scope at all, but you make a comparison with the binoculars. And from that point of view Nikon should be better when it comes to the ease of view at least.

I have the Nikon Fieldscope III Ed 60 and both a 20 X 45 zoom and the 30 WA. I love the scope and carry it everywhere. I just bought the 30XWA at Christmas for using for digiscoping. In my opinion it is a better quality eyepiece than the zoom (but again, my zoom is older and I have heard that the new zoom is much better). I can't imagine a better quality scope and eyepiece. It has a Nikon lifetime guarantee also.

The 60's

I will put these 2 scopes head to head this weekend, will post a review. But, the eyepieces will be different the Pentax XW 14mm w/ 65 ED and the Nikon Fieldscope III ED w/ 30X WA. Any bets?

Wish me luck,
Carlos

The outcome of your test will largely depend on the relative placement of each sample on the notorious lemon-cherry axis, the most important variable when it comes to scopes by any make. The sweeter one will win handily. However, for gambling-minded, I would expect the odds to favor Nikon. Their 60mm scopes have been pretty consistent in the past. If you can, do compare flare when viewing towards the sun or accross a brightly sunlit water.

Have fun,

Kimmo

For the eyeglass wearer with a small scope.

Hi BF,

2 samples tested were the Nikon Fieldscope III ED w/ 30x WA MC vs. the Pentax 65 ED w/ 28x Pentax 14mm SMC XW.

Sharpness- Nikon. Once again- edge to edge sharpness!

Field of view- Pentax.

Eye relief- Pentax but for me an eyeglasss wearer it was too much.

Ease of use- Nikon.

Focus- Nikon.

Colors- Nikon.

Brightness- Nikon, but this is very subjective and I find this difficult to observe accurately.

Contrast- Nikon.

Weight- Pentax.

Flare- Neither exhibited any signs of flare. But I did not spend alot of time on this might do a few more test tomorrow.


Both were angled models.

First overall impressions with Nikon 60 ED Fieldscope III vs. Pentax 65 ED- Yes the Nikon Fieldscope III ED is amazing. And The Pentax 65 ED is not too shabby but eye placement in the Penxtax XW 14mm eyepiece (even with lots of eye relief) is crucial. Still, I did not like the Pentax eyepiece it's a lot bulk for the lack of performance in comparisson to the small Nikon 30X WA MC. Everything snapped into focus with the FSIII and I knew immediately when it was sharp. With the Pentax because of eye placement and the focus knob I kept messing with it and took a breath and found the right eye placement too see clearly. Still the Pentax performed well and held it's own for the money but the colors, contrast, sharpness, ergonomics was about a 15% difference. I think the Nikon is about 15% more expensive than the Pentax and you get that in the the optics as well. Nikon Fieldscope really impressed me. Nikon has some amazing products- SE and FSIII ED! When I looked through the Nikon FS III I never wondered what was missing.

Pentax 65 ED is a very good scope and 14mm XW eyepiece. For the money it comes close to the Nikon. I like the Pentax 65 ED better optically than the Pentax 80 ED with SMC XF 20-60X the massive zoom. They may have improved a few things in the 65ED?



Hope this helps,
Carlos

Thanks for that. I'm surprised the field is wider in the Pentax. My that must be some field of view as the Nikon 30x is very wide indeed. If Nikon would bring out a wide field zoom - now that would transform their sales, I'm sure.

I have the Nikon Fieldscope ED with 30x WA. Got it 2nd hand for about £300. I don't really have much to compare it with, but when I have looked through other scopes I have to say that in normal daylight I always prefered it, even to much more expensive scopes. That's probably largely due to the wide-angle eyepiece, and I haven't compared it to another WA scope. The only slight -ve is that it is not fully waterproof, but it seems pretty shower resistant.

Labrax said:

I have the Nikon Fieldscope ED with 30x WA. Got it 2nd hand for about £300. .... The only slight -ve is that it is not fully waterproof, but it seems pretty shower resistant.

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If you have the EDIII, it should be waterproof, for all I know. It's another story in case of the earlier ED models, though.